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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30027516">finishing the hat</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/jonphaedrus/pseuds/jonphaedrus'>jonphaedrus</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: Legend of Korra</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Domestic, M/M, Slice of Life, Unresolved Romantic Tension, no betas we die like men</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2012-12-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2012-12-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 23:34:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,084</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30027516</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/jonphaedrus/pseuds/jonphaedrus</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"I got you something," Hwan said, having just returned from errands.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Original Male Character/Original Male Character</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>finishing the hat</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/480729">The Lovers That Went Wrong</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lapin/pseuds/Lapin">Lapin</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>repost of fic originally only ever posted on tumblr, the lnk to which is now defunct.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Not tonight," Reza grumbled one night, leaning away from Hwan, pulling back from his fingers, just as he reached to fix the Firebender's hair. "Just…go over these papers for me, would you?" He rubbed at the good side of his face, then stood up from the mat on Hwan's floor, looking around, his face twisted. "I'll be right back." Hwan half-opened his mouth to snap at him, but the man was already moving, stepping out the door, sliding it closed behind him.</p>
<p>Hwan stared after him, lips pursed, while he took the papers and pulled them over, tucking his bangs back behind his ear and running a finger down the line on the side. Receipts and ledger work. Reza really needed an assistant here, but every time he thought that there was a small pang somewhere inside his chest that he didn't want to investigate any further, at the thought that Reza might not…need to turn to him any more.</p>
<p>It was just his worry for his income. That was all. That was it.</p>
<p>The Firebender returned a few minutes later with a wet cloth, steaming slightly, and sat down on the floor before he paused, glanced at Hwan with his good eye, and then pressed the cloth over the scarring all over his face, seemingly not caring about the eyepatch getting wet.</p>
<p>The exhausted and relieved sigh he exhaled made Hwan look up, and Reza's mouth was almost slack, his good eye closed, and he looked…relaxed.</p>
<p>"Did something happen?" Hwan asked, finally. Normally the man didn't let on that anything about his scars bothered him—he avoided his bad arm and tended to jump when people came up on his blind side, and hated to be in bright sunlight, but never anything like this. Hwan might be close enough to the man to fix his queue for him, but…that was hair, and even then, when he occasionally brushed the scars Reza just shrugged it off.</p>
<p>When he had kissed Reza before, even on the scars, he had shrugged that off too.</p>
<p>"Had to do some errands for Zolt," Reza said finally, talking with only the good side of his mouth. "He was going to send Lieu but…he wasn't able to make it. Something came up that he had to go to." Reza's mouth twisted slightly. "So I went."</p>
<p>"Was that where you were this morning?" Hwan had gone looking for him for something, and found Reza…totally out. Not even a note.</p>
<p>The Firebender nodded.</p>
<p>"I spent too long in the sun, my burns really hurt." The lines beside his good eye tightened. "I'm not doing that again." Hwan looked at him, and then sighed, stood, and walked to his dresser, and carefully went through the different lotions and perfumes on the top before he came up with a bottle—scentless, very plain lotion that he rarely used, but perfect for soothing aching and abused skin—and came back over, knelt in front of Reza, opening the bottle and coating his hands with the lotion before he capped it again and set it aside.</p>
<p>"Let me see," Hwan said quietly, pushing aside the towel and revealing his skin, pulling down the edge of his sleeve and gently mopping up the dampness on his skin. Reza frowned at him.</p>
<p>"Hwan—"</p>
<p>"Just trust me," he sighed, brushing back the loose tendrils of dark hair fanning across Reza's badly burnt skin before he hesitated. "May I?" Reza grunted in response, but his one good eye was watching Hwan incredibly carefully. He wanted his personal space, but he hadn't stopped watching Hwan, hadn't stopped staring, even if he did it more openly and at closer distances. The Firebender tensed when he finally just pressed his fingers to his skin, but started to relax just a bit, tilting his head into Hwan's fingers like a pleased cat, and just sat there and relaxed slowly more and more, until his shoulders were slumped, his good eye closed, dark hair falling over his face.</p>
<p>Hwan had the sudden realisation that, like this, there was nothing that was at all intimidating about Reza. He looked suddenly so much older, so much more tired. And almost…lost, as strange a thought as that was. Like a cat, left out in the rain for too long, finally brought in to be safe and warm in its owners arms. And he didn't budge, didn't move, just let Hwan work the lotion into the burns on his face. They were so much different than he had expected them to feel, too. Not gritty, but smooth, with swirls and an almost…silk-like feel to them, stretched over too tight a loom. But thicker than that.</p>
<p>Maybe like glue, dripped and dried.</p>
<p>At the moment, tender too—Reza hissed a few times, but only momentarily before he relaxed again, and surprisingly when Hwan was done, he opened his eye, smiled. There seemed to be a weight off of his shoulders.</p>
<p>"Thank you," there was honesty in his words, and he smiled wider than Hwan had ever seen him do, both the good side of his mouth and the scarred side twisting—it could have made him look terrifying, but all it made him look was happy. "That feels much better."</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>"I got you something," Hwan said, having just returned from errands. Reza grunted and lowered his newspaper just as Hwan set a box down onto his table and took the lid off, pulling free a hat from the inside.</p>
<p>It was a damn nice hat. Black, felt fedora, not sharply ornamented but with a dark red band around the middle, and not one of those cheap fedoras that some people in the Triad wore, the real deal. It had to have been fantastically expensive. It couldn't have been cheap at all, nothing near.</p>
<p>"What…?" Reza looked up, and Hwan smiled.</p>
<p>"To keep the sun off of your face. I thought you might appreciate it." Reza paused, and then set the hat on his head—it fit perfectly, and Hwan leaned against the desk. "You look sharp."</p>
<p>"Do I?" He tapped the brim of the hat, twisted it around his head, and then nodded to Hwan. "Thank you."</p>
<p>"You're welcome." Hwan pushed past him and into the house, and as soon as he was gone, Reza folded his newspaper and pressed his good hand to his face and sighed into his wrist.</p>
<p>He was so far gone it wasn't even funny any more.</p>
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